Friday, October 23, 2015

Some Soccer News for Oct 22, 2015

Thursday is the day that Minnesota United and the city of St Paul step up to a microphone together and say, "We are going to build a soccer stadium at the intersection of Interstate 94 and Snelling Avenue." That is a big day for me. I have been thinking about this for a couple decades now. I am excited and I will be there.

dN

Ottawa Fury has won the Fall season in NASL and is closing in on the #1 seed in the playoffs.
-The Mayor of Ottawa will honor the Fury for their successful 2015 season on Friday. Isn't that jumping the gun? Its like the supporters singing "You came a long way just to lose," before the game is over. You almost always get scored on right after that. Good luck in the playoffs Ottawa, your mayor just shot you in the foot.

dN

Its funny how many people talk now about how naive they were 4 years ago when screaming bloody murder for Bob Bradley's head as USA coach.
-One thing they weren't wrong about was that it was time for a change. To me, unless a World Cup qualifying and tournament go GREAT (per expectations) then you should bring in new leadership.
-The part so many people got wrong was saying Bradley was a bad coach. Those people were just flat out ignorant.
-My issue for 9 years now has been that Jurgen Klinsmann was NOT the man for the job in the USA. I thought he did a below average job with Germany and then a very poor job at Bayern Munich, and I saw nothing that led me to believe he could improve the USA.
-I've been naive on a million things too. We all have. Then sometimes we learn.

dN

US Soccer was paid over $18M in 2015 by their marketing partner SUM for shares of TV revenue, sponsorship deals and licensing etc.
-A good portion probably came from the Women's World Cup.

You know what has not been a good deal for LA Galaxy? Getting rid of Marcelo Sarvas so they could have room on the roster for Steven Gerrard. Sarvas was simply a better fit on this team.

dN

Sporting Park has 69 consecutive sellouts for SKC's MLS games. (AKA every game since the stadium opened.)

dN

Kansas City has also announced the formation of a reserve team that will play in USL. They are named after their training facility and a lark of a name the fans came up with: Swope Park Rangers. I think its a great lark, but not so much a proper name. But I move on. Its great to have another team in the midwest!

dN

Of the 24 FIFA Executive Committee members who were in place when the voting happened for the 2018 & 2022 World Cups 14 of them have been investigated or suspended.

We're now down to 4 teams in NASL fighting for the last playoff position:
-Fort Lauderdale is the favorite to advance.
-(Already Advanced: New York, Ottawa & Minnesota)
-(Eliminated: Indy, Edmonton, Jacksonville & San Antonio)